How Can I Be So Crazy-Busy? I'm Retired!

If your vision of retirement is Lazy Days Sitting Around Reading, I urge you to reconsider turning in your paperwork. My dad warned me, but I didn't believe him. "You'll be busier than you ever were working," he cautioned. "And, worst of all, there are no vacation days."

He is right. November was a blur of NaNoWriMo, Nonfiction November, our Master Naturalist project, and Cybils. What did I accomplish?


NaNoWriMo

I am still amazed. I've done NaNoWriMo every year for the past eleven years and I've never written diddy-squat. This year, I made my goal of 50,000 words before mid-month. 

How did this happen? I retired, of course, and that enabled me to write more. I have to thank Saundra at Wildly Imperfect. I joined her group in January. Her group encourages people to write (or do some other practice) each day and post about it. I quickly got into the habit of writing a little each day. I also must thank Joy at Joy's Book Blog. She created a lovely guidebook to help people complete projects, and she formed a group that provided much support for NaNoWriMo. Thank you, Joy!

Nonfiction November

I went wild with Nonfiction November this year. I looked over my nonfiction reading for the year. I paired nature-themed nonfiction with fiction. I shared my list of the best books for writers about writing. I shared my thoughts on nonfiction-that-reads-like-fiction. I compiled a huge list of nonfiction I want to read that I found on other blogs. I wish I could do Nonfiction November every month.

Nonfiction November: My Year in Nonfiction

Nonfiction November: Nonfiction / Fiction Book Pairing

Nonfiction November Be the Expert: My List of the Best Books for Writers About Writing

Nonfiction November: Reads Like Fiction

Nonfiction November: New to My TBR

The Cybils

For the past eleven years, I've spent every October, November, and December reading huge amounts of children's books. I always try to read every nominated book, but this year I decided to really push things and set a goal of trying to review all the books I enjoyed. 

This year, I read 300 books out of 308 nominated (so far...I still hope to read them all.) I wrote reviews of 190 books. That certainly didn't hurt my yearly totals; I have read more than 400 books this year at Goodreads.

Now my panel of judges is hard at work trying to whittle the list down to seven books each for fiction picture books and board books.


My December Plans

What are my book-ish plans for the end of the year?
          * Finish all the Cybils---8 to go!
          * Cybils Short Lists
          * My Best-of-2018 List
          * Finish up a couple more books this year
          * Take a serious bite out of Anna Karenina
       

Was your November as crazy as mine?

Did you do NaNoWriMo or Nonfiction November?

What are you working on this month? 

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've
wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound
 journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....That's what happens
at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their
own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly,
mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.

The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's a chance to share news and recap the past week.

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week. 

 It is now being hosted here.

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which you can share the books you've acquired.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!
This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read”
book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted at The Book Date.